


Vulnerability is Admitting the Truths in a Heart

by bogbees



Category: Slayers (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Cultural Differences, F/M, Marriage Proposal, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-05 01:19:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18355652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bogbees/pseuds/bogbees
Summary: Filia has seen so many weddings, she thinks getting married to Xellos wouldn't be so bad.  But, she's a golden dragon, and she doesn't even think monsters can even comprehend the concept of a marriage. But it's an entertaining idea to keep, as harmless as making a dress she might like to wear to a wedding of her own.But Xellos makes it so you can't enjoy nice things. Most of the time.





	Vulnerability is Admitting the Truths in a Heart

Filia knew she was never getting married. It just wasn’t in her fate; practicing celibacy for hundreds of years really wounds any concept of forming romantically inclined relationships. Not to mention anyone she would have thought a good match were all dead, their rotting corpses decorating a frozen battlefield. Of course, her temple hadn’t been the only golden dragons around, but none of the others would give her a second glance as word of her renouncing the fire dragon king had spread like wildfire among the temples. 

Plus, the whole, raising their dreaded foe, an ancient dragon, and was in cahoots with a monster - a monster renown for his dragon slaying. It was just not socially acceptable for her to get married. She had accepted this a long, long time ago, back before she had even met Xellos or heard of Valgaav. Back when she had first started her priestess training, it was one of the first things little dragons had to resign themselves to. She was supposed to be okay with this lack of love in her life, she had spent so much time doing it. But the problem now was that she didn’t think like that anymore. She wanted to get married. 

The idea probably wormed its way into her head after she attended three weddings in the span of two weeks. At first she was bewildered. Humans had been so strange, celebrating love in such a manner. The golden dragons who had never practiced their religion as devoutly as the priestesses and elders, they never expressed marriage so openly.

By the second wedding, the openness of the love had grown on her, it was a beautiful sight to behold, two people so in love. It was so freeing. She admired it.

The day after she attended the third wedding, she had been talking to Xellos about it over tea, as they were to do. It was just mindless chatter over the proceedings and the clothes and the decorations, and his remarks on how tacky they seemed. Which she thought were big words for a monster going around with a purple mop on his head.

But he had said, “why Filia, you sound so excited over them, you could very well have one yourself! Though, I can’t think of anyone who would agree to it, maybe a dog perhaps but that doesn’t seem too kind to that poor creature.”

And two things came to mind which such extraordinary clarity, she could only gape in shock. She could get married now. There were no temple rules to hold her back. There was nothing stopping her from finding someone to settle with for the rest of her life.

And the second thing was that it would most likely be Xellos. He was the only one she could think of who would even agree with it, and was the only one who she even wanted to be with. It was a near earth shattering revelation, and the lack of earthquakes was sourly disappointing for the level of life changing it had been. She could get married to Xellos if she had so wanted, and she was perfectly fine with it. So she just furrowed her brows and tried her best to ignore his gloating on how her silence meant he was right. 

 

Over the years, she had been invited to more and more weddings. All human weddings of course, customers who she had grown to become close enough friends with that they all had wanted her to attend their wedding. Maybe they just wanted her to gift them her finest china, which was fair, because she did it anyway, what better way to celebrate a wedding than with fine china, she had said the moment she learned how human marriages worked. And word of her gifts just inspired others to invite her along, which just increased the number of weddings she fell in love with.

And the celebrations, they were all so lovely, so breathtakingly gorgeous. The brides all glowing, radiant and beautiful in their gowns that seemed to have been made for the exact, precise moment in which they spoke their vows. The grooms, so full of love they looked to overspill at the very idea of the word, and the friends and family adding to the emotion of it all. She loved it! Weddings were one of her favourite human traditions. A happy celebration, joining two souls in union, oh, it was so wonderful and heartwarming. Much better than what golden dragons did for when they did do these sorts of things, which paled in comparison as they hadn’t done more than paperwork and procreate. These human weddings were for love and mirth and joy, and she knew they all didn’t last, but the feeling still got to her.

When Val was old enough to attend the ceremonies, he fell in as much love with them as she did. He was always very excited whenever she told him they were invited to another wedding. He loved watching the blushing brides walking up to their betrothed, running up to them at the afterparty and congratulating them. He was excited for when Filia decided to get married, and hoped that it would be to Xellos. He had even brought it up to the monster on several occasions, while they were all sat down for tea and talking about the event from the day before. 

“Xellos, when are you going to marry my mommy?” the young dragon had asked.

The first time it had stunned them both before Xellos started laughing and Filia could only watch in horror. He smiled at Val, held up a finger to his lips and said those three words. And that’s how he responded every time after until Val stopped.

Xellos, didn’t seem to see the appeal in human weddings as she did. The topic was really only brought up when she wanted to let him know that there would be no tea the next day, as she had plans to be nowhere near the him. And every time, without fail, he would express distaste in the human ceremonies. Understandable, as he was a monster who feared warmth, could literally die if exposed to too much of it. A human wedding would have been a battlefield, one where he would most certainly perish. And so, with this knowledge, she set up the proper mental blocks about ever having the audacity to marry the monster, and did her best to not be too bothered by the fact it would never happen. Monsters probably never got married to begin with, what was the point of thinking anything of the sort. So for years, she had done her best to lose hope in ever getting married to him.

So when she found a white sundress on sale for a very good price, with the intention to fashion it into something she might wear to her own wedding, it wasn’t strange. She wasn’t being hopeful. Of course not. She had just been inspired by all the other men and women she had seen over the past few years, and wanted to try her hand at designing a wedding dress. That was all. She wasn’t entertaining her silly fantasies by doing this, it was simply a hobby that brought her some joy.

So, the dress had been her secret passion project - that only Val, Jillias, and Gravos knew about. They all supported her fully, her son shouting his encouragements and love for her, Jillias and Gravos had both been more quiet about the matter, Jillias giving her thumbs up whenever a handsome human walked into the store, while Gravos had just complimented her needlework and helped her - who knew he had such dexterous hands and a knack for embroidery.

And she was content with that. Despite how annoying Jillias playing wingman was, and how he vehemently declared Xellos was not fit to be married to her. And how annoying it was to tell the fox that she and Xellos were not getting married, and having to soothe Val who misunderstood her words as “Xellos and I are no longer together, he will no longer be in our lives.” It was alright. She was content with where her life was.

 

Her dress wasn’t the most beautiful dress in the world, she knew this to be fact. It had been a dreary morning in autumn, the shop was closed, so she thought to make some adjustments on her dress. When she put it on, to admire her handiwork in the mirror, the sight didn’t really spark any joy. The skirt barely passed her knees, with her sleeves made of handcrafted lace reaching to her elbows, and stretching across her chest. Maybe if she made the skirt longer, added a train, and adjusted her neck line. Maybe if she pined flowers or wore a veil… it was tough to decide on what could improve the gown, when she had no idea what kind of wedding she would have even wanted. When she knew she would never be wearing for its intended use.

Of course, she did entertain the thought, planning a wedding, while working on the dress. A outdoors one, maybe in the garden she was so very proud of. Maybe in the meadow a ways outside of town, the one she took Val out to, to stretch their wings under the night sky. Both would be very lovely locations indeed! So, lost in her thoughts and contemplations, she hadn’t the slightest idea that a world was existing around her.

“Filia, my dear dragon, it’s well past three in the evening, where ever are you? Not sick to your stomach because of that fish I gave you last night, are you?” 

She came out of her reverie, jumping in startlement, turning to the door frame, to meet with Xellos’, catch his eyes open, and felt her face rush red with hot embarrassment.

“Xellos! Get out! Go! Go! Go!” She screeched, covering her chest in a futile attempt to hide her silly secret. He would be insufferable about knowing she wanted to get married like the humans did, good gods. 

“But Filia, it’s so much more interesting in here.” Xellos sang, a grin stretching across his face, crossing into her personal bubble with a stride. 

“Oh my gods, please leave me be, get out, I’ll be down in a minute, just gooo” she wailed, now deciding to try and cover her face, hide her furious blush, as it was too late for her dress. He already knows. He’s seen it. Nothing left now but to feel shameful and listen to his teasing remarks on her handiwork. 

“What are you wearing?” he circles her, getting a good look at every detail, to which she can only miserably groan in response. “Is this the dress you’re going to wear when they decide you’re a witch and burn you at stake? A very bold choice, it would just fuel their desire, you know.”

At that she stops. Of course he would say that. He’s probably seen a thousand witch burnings, just sat there, on some church steeple and drank tea as he watched a poor woman die. Of course Xellos would compare this dress to that. Colour draining from her face as she stares back at the monster with utter dread. “Xellos.”

“Yes Filia?”

“No.”

“Oh? What is it then? Can’t be a clown costume, it’s much too elaborately designed and fine just to be decorated with tomato stains.” he remarks with a smile.

Filia would have explained to him that it was a wedding dress she was making for fun. Probably. She had fully intended to at least say what kind of dress it was, to see his reaction, because of some sick twisted sense of curiosity. 

But. She hadn’t taken into account that it was well after three in the afternoon, and Val returning home from school, and was fully expecting to see his favourite people in the whole world, sitting at the breakfast table, as was the natural order of his world. So Val calling out for her as he ran into her bedroom had completely interrupted their conversation. Which would have been a nice thing, if Val hadn’t apparently already been assuming things. 

“Xellos you can’t see mom in her wedding dress! It’s bad luck!” he screamed, mouth agape at the scandalous position his mother was in. 

To which the world stood still for what seemed like ten minutes. Perhaps it was hours. Which was two seconds in Xellos time and a full minute and thirty seconds in Filia time.

“We’re getting married are we, Filia?” Xellos asked her, completely ignoring the small boy vainly using all his might to drag him out of the room.

“I wasn’t exactly planning on it,” Filia said, scowling, pinching her nose, hoping he couldn’t sense that she was maybe kinda sorta lying about it.

“Well I sure hope you weren’t, not in that dress.” 

And Filia counted to ten. To twenty. A deep breath.

 

The aftermath of their conversation resulted in her dress getting torn to shreds, cheap lace and fabric scattered over her bedroom floor, by both Xellos and herself pointing out what was wrong with it, Val crying until his eyes stung and his nose had gotten sore, begging them to stop fighting, as he thought he was the cause for his parents to divorce. 

Which was the only reason they even stopped. They hurt Val with their nonsense, and it was despicable. Explaining to him that they couldn’t divorce because they weren’t even married made matters worse because he had then started to believe that they weren’t even going to get married. The only thing that eased him was when Xellos had kissed Filia’s cheek. It made him believe in true love again. 

“Please don’t fight,” he had hiccuped, “you two love each other,” and then he promptly fell asleep in Filia’s arms, exhausted from all the emotions of the day. Filia wanted to join him, sleep and forget her troubles, but there was still a monster and her feelings to deal with. And she was going to deal with them, she didn’t want to upset her son any more over this stupid marriage ordeal.

Once she had put him to bed, she noticed the sun was starting to set. She turned to the kitchen to find Xellos sitting at the breakfast nook, sipping at his tea and that he had prepared hers for her as well. He had picked their stupidly matching tea cups, her carefully crafted one and his disfigured, both broken but patched with gold, the cracks glinting in the candle light. The image of it softened her mood, the stupid implications a poet would write about the whole thing. And her resolve to talk to him about her feelings on marriage and him had waned. Maybe later. Maybe another day.

If Xellos noticed the change in her mood, he didn’t say anything, just sat there, thinking, drinking his tea. She supposed this was the best he could muster for an apology, and made a note to remind him to apologise to Val as well.

They sat there, watching the city lights twinkle outside the window, contemplating on their eventful day. Filia debating if she could still find the courage to talk. Xellos, probably was workshopping new arson techniques. Regardless of what was on their minds, the silence was nice, Filia decided. A poet might write romantic, her thoughts supplied, and she immediately tried to forget it. No need of adding silly feelings to this, there was and were never going to be anything more than this, it was the rule. Maybe that was why she was so easy to stop herself from confessing. Monsters don’t get married and dragons don’t marry monsters out of love. 

Eventually Xellos decided to speak his mind, as he had to ruin anything nice, “why are you so interested in marriage? I thought Fire Dragon Priestesses weren’t allowed to do anything of that sort.”

Filia agrees with him, “well, it’s true priestesses were forbade from relationships, but lower rank ones and the women nearing middle age were exempt in times of low birth rates.”

“So, all the time then,”

“Yes.”

It’s quiet for another moment, Filia deciding to contemplate on how she was going to fix her dress, if she would even try again, and Xellos thinking on … whatever monsters think about at eight in the evening while having tea and a discussion on marriage. 

But of course, he opens his mouth yet again to ruin the comfortable silence with his chatter and questions, “Weren’t you one of the highest ranks Filia? Wouldn’t you have been properly resigned for a loveless life?”

Filia scowls at the monster across from her, who doesn’t even have the decency to look abashed for his rude comment, “Xellos, I’ve long since left that life behind me. I can get married if I so happen to wish.”

“Yes, but the only options in your life are monsters. Hardly any one you’d deem worthy to settle down with, no? And not to mention all the women you have befriended have all gone and gotten married already. And our friends have long since devoted themselves to another, they wouldn’t consider settling down here with you and your domestic lifestyle.”

To this, Filia finds no shame in staring at him as if he had no brain rattling around inside his head. Completely clueless, dense, forgive her pottymouth, a complete and utter asshole. Why hasn’t he assumed she wanted to marry him? Why did it not pass through the brain cells he loves to boast about? What a moron. And her domestic lifestyle! He’s the one that got caught up in it, arriving for tea almost every single day, treating each other as old friends, acted the part of the father to Val most of the time, making the neighbors and customers assume they had been married for years now, and he had the audacity to suggest there was no one on this green earth who would want to?

He doesn’t even seem perplexed by her silence, “oh, so you’ve finally caught on to the flaw in your plan have you Filia, gosh you golden dragons can be so dense,” he says instead, smiling wildly, as if he’s won a game.

The audacity, that this man has. She can only gape at him. She counts to ten to calm her bubbling rage. Then to twenty. She takes a sip of her tea

“Xellos,” she starts setting her tea cup back down on it’s saucer, should she accidentally break it again, “Xellos, I was mostly making that dress as a hobby. But, you do know that Val thinks we should get married, right? You heard him say that earlier today. He assumes I was making that dress so we,” she gestures over the table to him and back to her, “could get married. 

“He believes we love each other enough to get married.”

Xellos loses his dumb smile to think about what she’s said, and she takes that as a sign to forge on wherever she’s going with this. Probably somewhere she didn’t ever want to go. And maybe it’s the emotions of the day and the overwhelming amount of times the concept of marriage had been thrown around, that leads her to be so careless with her feelings.

“Xellos, to be honest here,” she looks him in the eyes, “I was making that dress half expecting that it’d be you who got to kiss me while I was wearing it.”

She half expects this confession to render him speechless long enough to usurp the previous record of three minutes, back when she told him she wanted him there when Val hatched. He’s opened his eyes, having understood this was serious, he’s not moved an inch and looks ready to combust. She hopes she hasn’t killed him with this confession, as it’d be such tragic irony that the one person she wanted to spend her life with was so easily slain by the very concept. She’s starting to regret even saying it in the first place, if only she could have held her tongue. 

He apologises. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I can’t,” he says void of any emotion at all, and promptly flashes into the next plane. 

Leaving Filia alone in her kitchen. Deeply regretting forgetting to keep her feelings locked up. 

After the initial shock, and some disbelief, manic laughter, asking the empty space for him to come back, she didn’t mean it, she rotates through the stages of grief. Pacing about her kitchen, muttering grievances towards Xellos and her silly emotions, and Val being heartbroken. Fury raises hotly, she glares at his half drank tea and comes very close to smashing it into dust. She bursts out into tears thinking of Val, who loved Xellos being in his life, and how she ruined her son’s small joy. Eventually the tears dry as she settles on anger and rage, cursing the monster, hastily creating vases so she’s doing something with her hands and creating and letting her ire fume out by kneading the clay until she’s exhausted. 

When she decides it’s time to sleep, she weeps long and hard into her pillows, worrying for the safety of her family, regretting ever coming to accept Xellos, trying so very hard to despise him as her kin have done before her, but failing the moment she thinks of his dumb laugh. She cries herself to sleep.

 

When she wakes, it’s too a light nudging and a gentle calling of her name, “Filia, Filia wake up you silly dragon,” the voice calls to her sweetly. She smiles and looks to where the sound is coming from, to be greeted by two lightly coloured eyes. Xellos. 

She smiles, whispers his name with such fondness, because she’s still sleepy, and she loves him. It falters when she sees how the room is still dark, with the moon light being the only source of light. When she remembers Xellos isn’t supposed to be here in her room at this hour, or ever at all. 

The moment she feels her face, the dried tear stains on her cheeks, her anger ignites with such a flourish he startles and takes a step back.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“You are!” she seethes, “you are what’s wrong Xellos, you rejected me! Get out, get out, get out!” 

He just stares dumbly at her instead, “when ever did I say that?” 

“Just now! You said you were sorry you couldn’t marry me and just left!” she grips her pillows, knuckles turning white.

He makes a quiet “oh!” as he pieces the missing story together, and imagines what thoughts must have crossed her mind while he was away. He smiles brightly at her foolishness, “no, no, Filia my dear, you misunderstood,” and sits on the bed, “it’s a monster tradition.”

Her grip on the pillows loosen as she tries to work it out in her head, and he takes her dumbfounded expression as the okay to continue. 

“You see, marriages don’t often happen in the Monster realm.”

Filia scowls at him, her canines barred, “obviously, monsters don’t get married. That’s why you said no and left!”

Xellos laughs, just delighted by her foul mood, “Filia, no, no, we do get married. We don’t really do emotions and relationships as you know, but, once every hundred years or so, two or three want to get married. So, there were some formalities put in place for these occasions. Like how humans have their traditions of breaking glasses with their feet, or fattening pigs to decide who gets the girl’s hand in marriage, having matching rings, or how you golden dragons just sign a piece of paper and promptly procreate and never speak to another again.”

He takes a moment to fully appreciate her sputters at his insult to the dragon races dull way of life before continuing to explain himself.

“When a monster is proposed to, they can’t accept until they find a gift that the other would … find great pride in. Sometimes, it takes multiple tries, others once, and a few give several gifts at once to express that they’re very well to provide. Usually the gifts are hides of terrible beasts, to signify power, difficult to get sorts of stuff. Impressive things.

“So when you said you wanted to marry me, I had to decline your offer until I could give you a gift worthy of your approval. So that’s what I did.”

He takes out a carefully wrapped parcel, and presents it to Filia.

Filia didn’t necessarily understand most of what he had been saying, but got the gist of it, the gift giving part being the only way to confirm a proposal. So she studies the brown paper, trying to guess what it’s contents were, maybe some gross and nasty thing that only he thought was interesting, “you’re saying you’ll marry me?”

“Not until you accept the items I’ve given you.”

She tears her gaze away from the wrapping, “you mean, if I decline this, you will just go off and find something else until I agree?”

“Yes, but I think you’ll accept these tokens.”

Of his affection. She looks down to the parcel in her hands, and decides that yes, that’s what this entire thing was. Monsters couldn’t, can’t articulate their own feelings well, and this was a way to show them, to be certain the marriage was one of good faith or whatever the monster equivalent was, she supposes, pulling on the string tying the package together. 

“You sound sure of yourself,” she says.

He smiles broadly, “I always am.”

She unties the bundle and finds a beautiful sheet of fabric, shimmering like the night sky, she gasps at how beautiful it is.

“That comes from the Ridos spider, a beast in the monster realm that grow as large as a house and live in the darkest and most dangerous caves, feasting on glow worms. It’s silk is so smooth and fine, monsters go out of their way to wear actual clothes. I think it would do nicely to replace that rag you had been making.”

She bites her cheek, “it’s only a rag now because of you.” She unfolds the fabric to find two smaller items. 

“That’s Lord Beastmaster’s seal.” Xellos says drawing her attention to the stone with an emblem carved into it. “A protection, if you will. No other monster’s will dare enter here with hostility, else they face her wrath. It was the most difficult item for procure.”

“How so? Did Zellas spend the entire time laughing? Did you have to steal it?”

“Oh, no,” he says, “I had to explain myself.”

Filia stares at him.

“She wanted to know why I wanted it, and why I thought I deserved it, if my intentions were of sound mind, what my intentions were with you. It took nearly three hours I do believe, we spent a lot of time in silence. But we did come to a conclusion in the end, and she gave me it.”

Filia furrows her brows and smiles at him, “you’re an idiot,” she says and looks at the other item and gasps.

“Is this,” she holds up a shard, a piece of Val’s shell she allowed Xellos to keep. It’s glow has long since faded, remains looking nothing more than a pretty piece of blue coloured glass, and when it catches the moonlight, it twinkles red, and green, and yellow. Her cheeks feel very wet now, and she laughs, rubbing them away with her hand, “you didn’t have to-”

“Well, I don’t see why I need to keep it when I’m going to be with you and Val.” he says and her bright smile is strained as she starts sobbing. What a bastard, being so sentimental like this. Loving her and Val like this, actually wanting to spend his life with them. It warms her heart so much, she can’t seem to stop crying over how wonderful it is.

He smiles back at her, strained from her over flowing warmth, struggling to stay upright, and failing miserably. 

She jumps on him, pushing him onto the bed, and cries into his shoulder, “Xellooosss,” she wails, “I hate yoouu,” hugging him tighter. 

He laughs weakly, “if that were the case, I wouldn’t feel so vulnerable,” and smoothes her back. And they fall into a peaceful silence, only interrupted with her quiet sniffs. 

“I’m glad you accepted my gifts,” he says after a time, when her sobs have reduced to hiccups.

“I never said that,” she starts, and he places his finger to her lips.

“You never, no, but your heart did. I felt it, I still feel it.” 

She says oh and snuggles closer to him, “I thought monsters were weakened with that sort of thing,”

“Well, I am. When two monsters get married, they have to make themselves vulnerable to another first, which is why we do this. And why it isn’t a common thing to happen or why it’s such a secret outside the monster realm. Who knows what could go wrong, could be an assassination attempt, there could be assassins waiting to off them both. It’s a dangerous thing.”

And Filia understood that. Love was a dangerous thing. But it was a wonderful thing as well. 

Xellos continues on, “so monster weddings are an open invitation, and powerful ones show up to make sure the balance of power stays as it is, all while enjoying the free food. Basically a party where we ignore the main event and make fun of them for having emotions.”

She lightly smacks him for his rudeness, “well, you’re one of those emotion having monsters now, I’m sure Lord Beastmaster is laughing herself silly over you.”

Xellos nods, “she did get a kick out it when I told her. Called me a moron for not doing this sooner, she seems to think I’m slow on the uptake.”

Filia can just stare at him, “Xellos, you needed several months to even realise you even had feelings for me. Zellas told me you were so mopey because you hadn’t been able to see me, it was insufferable.”

Ignoring how unnerving the idea of Filia was on a first name basis with his boss, he disagreed, “she would have hated to have seen this then, glad I didn’t invite her.”

“You’re her … closest thing to a son, I think she would have been delighted to see you do this.”

Xellos scowls, glad this was so spur of the moment with no acknowledgement to the regular proceedings. “It’s better this way, less publicity and emotional meltdowns and vulnerability.”

She thought about it, perhaps it was better that they eloped then, they were dangerous affairs, especially so considering the pairing they were. A monster known for slaying dragons and a dragon priestess known for denouncing her temple, both raising the world’s last ancient dragon. There would have been bloodshed.

“Well, it’s better than what we dragons do. There’s so much bureaucracy involved. You have to submit a form, hope it gets approved, and then you wait several months, maybe years. One of my clutch mates waited seven years, for the Elders to assign a match best suited for whatever was written on the form, well, actually best suited for the good of the Temple. There’s no… feelings at all. 

“Had none of this happened, I would have gotten married in say several hundred more years. Perhaps to, I guess someone being trained for an Elder position, because I would have been used as an example for proper priestesses.”

Xellos starts laughing to that, “really Filia, you think that? You?”

“I was the daughter of the Supreme Elder, Xellos. I had standards to meet. I would have gone on to become the most reserved priestess you’d ever have met, as it’s what the elders wanted of me, and having blindly followed them I would have done it without question.”

Xellos replies, his voice quieter, “perhaps, but I don’t believe it. You’re a very smart and talented dragon Filia, I’m sure you would have seen them for their true colours.”

She hums, in mild agreement, thinking back to the supreme elder, who had been her father by biology alone, never once expressing fondness towards her or her mother, who hadn’t been much of an improvement. The most they had ever smiled was at her of age ceremony and most of that was only out of pride of her having been one of the best in the whole group.

“When a dragon turns of age,” she suddenly says, “they’re allowed to visit the oracle and ask them to foresee their future. Probably a way to encourage us to follow the teachings more, if we were told that we’d be succeeding. I never went to see the oracle to see what my future would be, if they saw this,” she reaches her arm out, sweeping from Xellos to the wall, “I think I would have been culled on the spot. Well, maybe later, if they couldn’t find a way to fix it.” 

Xellos laughs to that. “I love that golden dragons just kill things they have problems with. It’s not very peaceful if you ask me,” he pauses, “you’re not allowed to agree with that, there’s been multiple occasions where you’ve threatened my life.”

Which gets Filia to laugh, because the absurdity of it, “well, you were being an ass and deserved it.” 

“Oh, you have a potty mouth now, do you?”

Filia would have done something cheeky, maybe kissed him to shut him up and forget about it, maybe agreed, maybe she would have been bold and done something, well, more intimate. But with his wording, she had remembered something important and her train of thought had been derailed.

“Xellos, by monster standards, we’re married now, yes?” 

He didn’t lose his smile, but he did seem disappointed that she switched the conversation, “yes, just a private one, why?”

“Val wanted to be here.” 

And Xellos understood completely. Val loved them both very much, he knew this to be a universal fact. And really ironic considering his previous life had despised them both and had attempted to kill them on multiple occasions. But, well, Val was full of love, and Xellos could feel it even with the boy sleeping in another room. And after their dispute earlier, learning they got monster married without his know, it would most likely devaste him and the idea left a sour taste on Xellos tongue. “Well, that is troubling. Should I wipe your memory and do this again tomorrow? Make it authentic.”

“What, no. I don’t want to forget this,” she squeezed his hand to prove her point, “what if. We hold a public ceremony, like you monsters and humans do,”

“I think I’d rather be on Miss Lina’s bad side.” 

“And you present your gifts, and we sign the contracts, and since Val only knows human wedding traditions, we include some of those as well. I’m not sure which ones, there are so many, but maybe we just ask him what he expects and do that. We formally invite Zellas, and Miss Lina and the others. No one needs to know we already did it.”

He doesn’t reply for a few moments, thinking on her suggestion, being uncomfortable with the whole publicity of the event, the vulnerability of it, “it would be very dangerous.”

“That’s only if word got out. I know a lovely clearing that’s well hidden,”

“That one you and Val go to to transform? That one is difficult to find, it took me a while.”

Fillia groans at the memory, they almost had the burned the forest down, “yes, that’s the one.”

“But if I can find it, I’m sure a fleet of golden dragons and monsters can locate it just as well with several people prancing around in it celebrating a marriage.” 

“Several of those people have saved the world and are some of the most powerful people I know. Plus, we’re both a force to reckon with, any attackers would dealt with within minutes of arriving.” 

He smiles, not happy or sad, but a soft and thoughtful smile. She lets him think on it, twist and turn it around in his mind, searching for any problems he still might have with her proposal. 

“We’re already married in my books,” he says finally, and with a great pause to study the wall, maybe to search out anything to put up as an excuse for not doing it, “but if Val wanted to be there, I don’t see why not.”

Filia envelopes him in another hug, sending him back onto the mattress, and kisses him. When they break, Filia laughs with such joy, Xellos stares back up at her, his eyes glowing in the moonlight.

A creak interrupts them, they jump to see the door swing open, and then a sleepy mumble of something that must be “mommy, why are you laughing it’s bedtime.”

Val shuffles to the bed, rubbing his eyes. He stops and looks up to see Filia lying on top of Xellos, and seeing the monster, Val wakes up loud gasp. “Xellos!” he says.

“Hello Val,” Xellos says, “what woke you up?”

The young dragon hums, and climbs up onto the bed to join them, “nuhin,” he says, “can I sleep here with you and mommy?”

“Well, I’m not the one to ask, but I’m okay with it.”

“Oh!” Val says, and turns to Filia, “can I mommy? Please?”

Filia can’t say no to him, not when he’s this happy. “Sure sweetie. Xellos and I have something important to tell you before we go to sleep, ok?”

Val looks between them, unsure what they could possibly want to tell him. He sees Filia look at Xellos, and gesture for something, and Xellos look pained for a moment before clearing his throat and looking at Val.

“Your mother asked me to marry her and I accepted.” 

Val gasped, looking back at his mom, who nodded and smiled, “we’re getting married, Val.”

The young boy started to cry. Xello started to feel weak, and Filia smiled and joined in and brought them both in for a hug. 

They calmed down and spoke about it for sometime before dozing off to sleep, Val snuggled soundly between Filia and Xellos. 

Before Filia let sleep get the best of her, she looked to Xellos, “thank you,” she softly said before sleep took her.

Looking back at her, Xellos frowned, brows furrowed, “you silly dragon, I should be thanking you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three of _Ignorance Being the Best Bliss_ is still in the works, [here's](http://humblereflection.tumblr.com/post/180981434372/ignorance-being-the-best-bliss) a little update on what to expect! And since I'm here, chapter two of this won't be posted until IBtBB gets it's final chapter!
> 
> I only wrote this (started back in feb.......) bc i tend to end up looking at wedding dresses on pintrest and crying bc they're all so pretty. especially the photo shoots in flower fields???
> 
> Any errors in this fic are in gods hands now.


End file.
